Salinas, Calif. – October 24, 2016 – Natividad Medical Center (NMC) has been recognized by the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes (CALNOC) with two 2016 Awards for Performance Excellence. CALNOC, the leading provider of research on nursing sensitive indicators, honored NMC for its work to reduce injury falls and hospital-acquired pressure ulcers.

Over the last year, NMC reduced injury falls by 67 percent, from 1.18 falls to 0.38 falls per 1,000 patient days. To reduce patient fall risk, the hospital adopted safety bed enclosures (allowing patients to be secure, but not physically tied to beds) and installed beds only six inches off the floor. Additionally, NMC secured walkers and instituted additional staff support in its acute rehab unit. Across the organization, supervisors and nurses huddle daily to discuss issues and successes, and all fall incidences are shared with patients and visitors.

“This recognition from CALNOC is a testament to our staff’s accountability and commitment to patient safety,” said Sue Saunders, RN, MPA, and NMC’s director of nursing education. “By establishing a new model and system for caring for patients, we were able to decrease injury falls by 67 percent and we’ve had no serious injury falls in 2016.”

Chosen from among 250 eligible CALNOC hospitals, this is the third year in a row NMC received an award for preventing hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs). Over the last year, NMC has reduced HAPUs by 50 percent. NMC also found no hospital acquired pressure ulcers above a stage two, therefore received a zero percent prevalence rate by CALNOC. A pressure ulcer, an injury to the skin or underlying tissue caused by pressure, friction and moisture, often occurs when patients have limited mobility and can’t change positions in bed on their own. Hospitals must pay special attention when pressure ulcers occur to provide quick treatment to reduce damage to skin and muscles, pain, infection and other problems.

Natividad Medical Center will accept these awards at the 2016 CALNOC Conference to be held Monday, October 24 at 6 p.m. PT at the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa.

About Natividad Medical Center (NMC)
Owned and operated by Monterey County, NMC is a 172-bed, acute-care hospital providing health care services to county residents for more than 131 years. Based in Salinas, California, NMC offers inpatient, outpatient, emergency, diagnostic and specialty medical care. NMC provides more than 38,000 patient days of care each year and has more than 52,000 emergency department visits per year. NMC is a Level II Trauma Center providing the immediate availability of specialized personnel, equipment and services to treat the most severe and critical injuries. NMC’s Trauma Center is a vital community service locally that saves lives and eliminates the need to fly critically injured patients to a distant trauma center. NMC is ranked No. 1 in newborn deliveries in Monterey County and is the only teaching hospital on the Central Coast through its affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). With a medical staff of more than 300 physicians, NMC’s mission is to continually monitor and improve the health of the people, including the vulnerable, in Monterey County through coordinated, affordable high-quality health care. For more information, please call 831-755-4111 or visit www.natividad.com.

About CALNOC
CALNOC (the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes), is the leading provider of actionable information and research on nursing sensitive quality indicators. Always on the forefront of patient care excellence, CALNOC created the first nursing database registry of nursing sensitive indicators which turns patient outcome data into powerful information for hospital executives to help guide decisions to advance global patient care. Today CALNOC is the nation’s only Nurse Sensitive Registry developed and managed by Nursing.